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News -- Linux Distributions and The Free Software Community — a note from the president of Debian

Linux Distributions and The Free Software Community — a note from the president of Debian

November 15th, 1997

We of the Debian project produce a high-quality 100% free-software Linux
system. But, as volunteers, we have another job, too — Debian helps keep
the commercial Linux distributors honest by providing a non-commercial
alternative for them to be compared against.

There is a Social Contract in the free software community. Good members
take value from it in the form of free software that others have
contributed, and return value for what they have taken in the form of
free software that they have developed. Bad members just take.

Is your Linux Distribution honoring the social contract? You can find
Debian's policy at
https://www.debian.org/social_contract.
This provides a statement of what we will give back to the free software
community, and our guidelines for what is free software and what's not
quite free. We published this about half a year ago, expecting other
Linux distributions to also state in writing how they were going to
treat the free software community. So far, no other Linux distribution
has made that statement.

If you run a Linux system other than Debian, we urge you to ask them
for a copy of their Social Contract in writing. We'd like you to be
able to compare all Linux systems on the basis of how they are treating
the free software community.